In the field of vehicle dynamics, the design and specification of a suspension system includes many different tradeoffs, such as ride comfort vs. stability. In addition to this, the performance of a vehicle with respect to various operational parameters such as loading, vehicle speed, vehicle condition, etc. must be considered. Usually suspensions end up being a compromise between a wide variety of attributes that include both performance as well as cost/weight constraints.
Recently, in the design and manufacture of suspension systems, there has been a promulgation of active systems such as those including controllable dampers, controllable air springs, and active wheel toe change. Active wheel toe change is used to steer either the front or rear wheels via a control signal derived from various chassis sensors (lateral acceleration, steering angle, etc.) in order to change lateral and yaw response characteristics either to improve stability or to create unique response traits for a given vehicle concept. These active systems are generally more costly than a pure passive suspension, require considerable power in order to create activation, and are subject to failsafe risks requiring them to have highly developed fault risk protection systems in order to be deployed safely in chassis application.
What is needed is a system that can produce similar changes in vehicle response behavior without large requirements for control power and the development intensive challenges related to failsafe and control logic.